1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and process for severing the head from the body of a fish in a manner to preserve with the fish body the maximum amount of edible meat.
2. Prior Art
Particularly the head of a salmon has been severed from the body mechanically in the past, principally by the use of an "iron chink" which utilized a chopping knife that chopped through the fish when lying on its side and was contoured to cut the head at its root generally along the conformation of the pectoral girdle. The difficulty with use of such a chopping knife was that the cut must be perpendicular to the longitudinal central plane of the fish so that either part of the bone around the root of the fish head was not removed or, if the location of the cut was sufficiently far rearward to remove all of the bone, some of the edible meat of the fish at the root of the fish head near the back of the fish also would be severed and wasted.